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Thursday, 5 April 2012

Vegetarian Easter Main Course - Vegetarian Easter Pie

As promised yesterday, today I am featuring a great Vegetarian main course dish which can be eaten with roast potatoes, vegetables and all the trimmings over the Easter weekend. I quite like having vegetarian pies when the meat-eaters are tucking into their roast as they are quite substantial, fill you up and you don't feel like you haven't had a proper meal - which is what I feel like if I have just been served the potatoes and veg without the meat.

There are lots of lovely vegetarian main dishes to be found around the internet, but here are a few of my ideas of what you could eat over Easter if you are vegetarian, or what to serve to vegetarians over the Easter weekend:

Well for Easter I decided to make an Easter pie which could be eaten with a roast. I specifically wanted to use seasonal ingredients, so I took my inspiration from a recipe I have for Harvest Pie which uses lots of root vegetables, and adjusted the vegetables to suit the season. I included leeks, spring onions and chives which are all currently in season, and added some potato and carrots to the mix to give the dish some texture and depth. I then made a light, creamy cheese sauce to combine the ingredients with.

This pie does take a while to make, as you have to make the lattice lid and refrigerate the pastry, so leave lots of time, or make in advance and just re-heat before you serve it. The pie tastes really delicious. The flavour of the chives and spring onions really comes through and the leeks and carrots really complement each other. The pie was lovely served with our roast dinner and the whole family enjoyed their pie.

So here is my recipe for homemade Easter Pie - do let me know if you give it a try over Easter and most of all... Enjoy, and Happy Easter!

Sift the flour into a bowl and add the butter to the bowl. Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, using your fingertips.

Add the water, a tablespoon at a time to the mixture and use a knife to bring the dough together as you add the water. Use your hands to bring the dough together towards the end and smooth out the pastry.

Divide the dough into two. Use one portion of the dough to line a pre-prepared 10 inch pie or flan dish. Refrigerate the pastry for 20 minutes.

Take the other pastry and roll it out into an 11 inch circle. Cut the pastry into strips. Next, take a sheet of baking parchment and lay half of the strips out on the baking paper, leaving a 1cm gap in between each strip. Interweave the remaining strips to make a lattice pattern. Cover the pastry with cling-film and refrigerate until the pastry is firm.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Bake the pastry blind for 10 minutes by inserting grease-proof paper over the pastry and adding a layer of baking balls, dried beans or rice on top of the paper. Once cooked, remove the paper and beans/balls/rice and then bake for a further 10 minutes or until lightly golden. Allow to cool for a short while.

Meanwhile, start to make the pie filling. Place the carrot and potato in a pan of boiling water and cook for around 10 minutes.

In a separate pan, heat the oil in a pan over a medium heat and add the spring onions, chives and leeks to the pan. Cook for around 5 minutes or until the leeks and spring onions are soft. Turn the heat down to low and continue to cook for around 5 minutes.

After 10 minutes, drain the carrot and potato - it should still be slightly firm and then add the carrot and potato to the leek, chive and spring onion mixture. Stir well to combine and season with salt and pepper.

In a separate small pan, heat the 50g of butter until it has melted. Add the flour and cook, stirring for 2 minutes.

Gradually add the milk and stir between each addition until the mixture reaches a smooth consistency. Once the milk has all been added, boil for one minute and then remove from the heat.

Add the cheese and egg yolks and stir until smooth.

Once the sauce is cooked, add to the vegetables and stir to combine.

Transfer the mixture to the pie and smooth over.

Brush the edges of the pie case with the beaten egg.

Using the baking paper, invert the pastry lattice over the vegetable mixture, trim the edges and brush with beaten egg.

Wow that's a stunning looking pie, I bet it is really lovely and creamy inside too, perfect for Easter. I think we are going veggie for Easter Sunday! Thanks for linking up, have included it in FFF for April xxx

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